With NCAA Individual Championship berths on the line, USC women’s tennis rose to the occasion. Dominant showings in both the singles and doubles tournaments earned three Trojans qualification for the national championships in November.

The Trojans qualified through the ITA Southwest Regional Championships, which featured 157 players, with the singles finalists and the doubles champions earning qualification. The event took place in San Diego from Oct. 16 to 21.

Within a month of senior Emma Charney clinching a spot at her second individual championship, three of her teammates immediately followed suit at regionals: sophomore Jana Hossam in singles and the doubles pairing of freshman Dani Borruel and junior Lily Fairclough.

“We’re really excited about how so many players have qualified so far,” Head Coach Alison Swain said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “Our girls came in really prepared to have to bring their best performances mentally and physically in these events, and they’ve shown that this fall.”

The NCAA tennis committee is currently in the second year of a pilot program that shifts the individual championships from the spring to the fall to reduce player injuries and tournament withdrawals.

“It’s a really tough thing to do, to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the fall,” Swain said. “The way you qualify now isn’t by the body of the work throughout the entire year. It’s literally by your performance in a small number of tournaments in the fall.”

Hossam qualified by virtue of reaching the singles final, cementing her spot by defeating her teammate, freshman Krisha Mahendran, 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. She followed that with a hard-fought 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over San Diego State University senior Jo-Yee Chan in the semifinals.

Although she had qualified for the final against Pepperdine sophomore Anastasiia Grechkina, Hossam withdrew from the match, with Grechkina claiming the title by walkover, meaning Grechkina was awarded the win due to Hossam’s abstention.

According to Swain, the decision behind Hossam’s withdrawal was purely strategic. By the final, she had already locked in a place at the NCAA Championships; therefore, the team opted to prioritize her academics.

“The tournament runs Thursday all the way through the following Tuesday, and we always have to balance our players being student-athletes,” Swain said. “We put some considerable thought into it, and it just seemed like the smartest decision we could make for Jana. We want our players to be successful in all realms.”

According to Swain, Hossam has many upcoming opportunities despite her withdrawal, including competing in Seattle for doubles sectionals with Mahendran and in singles at the NCAA tournament.

The Trojans showcased more than just individual prowess — they flourished in all facets, including in doubles, where Borruel and Fairclough rose to the occasion.

Even though it was their first tournament playing together, the pair gelled instantly, proving to be an unstoppable force throughout the competition. The duo went on a perfect 5-0 run, with the last piece of the puzzle being a narrow 6-7 (10-12), 6-4, [11-9] victory over California State University Northridge graduate Nicole West and senior Angela Ho in the final.

Swain said that Borruel and Fairclough both possess valuable doubles experience. Borruel came into the team with a strong junior doubles background, and Fairclough, ranked 15th nationally in ITA doubles, played with a variety of partners over the summer.

“That helped them know that they could gel pretty quickly, and then we put a lot of work into practice for them to have a clear understanding of what they were trying to do in the doubles court together,” Swain said. “But, honestly, they got better every match they played.”

Borruel and Fairclough’s ITA regional doubles triumph was the first for USC since 2015 and the eighth all-time in school history.

Many other Trojans also made their mark at the tournament. Junior Immi Haddad, as well as freshmen Mahendran and Eugenia Zozaya, all made deep runs in the singles bracket, reaching the quarterfinals. Sophomore Simone Kay fell in the round of 64.

Hossam and Mahendran also showed promise as a doubles pairing, losing 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals to eventual champions Borruel and Fairclough.

Hossam and Borruel’s stellar tournament runs saw them pick up various individual accolades. Hossam earned the Big Ten Player of the Week award alongside Ohio State sophomore Nao Nishino, while Borruel took home Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.

“We’re a team that really enjoys putting in the work,” Swain said. “Even though we’ve had great results this fall, I think that ability to focus on the process rather than the result of a single tournament has really benefited our development.”

As the Trojans gear up for an important stretch of competitions ahead, they’ve begun working on individualized training blocks to develop confidence in their abilities and trust in their style of play, according to Swain.

“We’re going to go in there without a result expectation but focusing on how we want to be as competitors and the brand of tennis each one of our players plays,” Swain said. “If we do that, good things are going to happen.”

With nationwide championships on the horizon, women’s tennis next heads to Rolling Hills, where they’ll compete in the Dennis Rizza Classic from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.

Following that, the team will split for back-to-back tournaments from Nov. 6 to 9: Haddad, Hossam and Mahendran will compete in the ITA Sectional Championships in Seattle, Washington, while Zozaya will go solo, taking part in the ITA Conference Master’s Championships in San Diego. 

Both events offer qualifying positions for the national tournament later in November.